Landscape

This is one of my litho prints from my lithography class. (That's right. STONE PRINTING!)
YOU ETCH IN STONE. That means, no erasing. No smudging.
As a class, we were severely behind schedule, yet our professor made no moves to adjust the syllabus to acknowledge this.
So I had to work double time to make up for the time lost. For our landscape project, I took the initiative to draw out this little diddy. It's nothing glorious but everything was drawn out of pure spontaneity. It was fun to take on this personal challenge and I was surprised that it came out the way it did -given the time restraints I had.

I think when you don't have the chance to worry and stress over perfection, you can appreciate things that you normally wouldn't.

It was a nice experience, and nice outcome.

Who Is this girl I see?

I could never accurately capture who I am - and the way I look. My ultimate weakness? Self portraits.

If I was a super hero- all you would have to do is shove a pencil and a drawing pad my way and challenge me to a self portrait contest and I'll be done. (Yes, I will collapse and reach for the skies as I slowly drift into a dark abyss. Ha!)

I'm terrible with self portraits and having to do a sketch for a lithograph was a challenge. I'd like to think I've improved with such an endeavor, however.

The project was to etch your self portrait in stone- print and then make an edit. Well. Mine was about my hair since I had hair that was almost at my butt! So I cut off 15 inches for Locks of Love
So my second print would be where I removed my longer hair.
(Stay tuned for the litho print!)

Tagging Traditions

Thanks for Emily Thompson and Matt Lynch for the photos!
In an installation class we were given an assignment to work in a group and come up with an installation idea that we would later present to the art curators at the Cincinnati Art Museum.

My team consisted of Emily Thompson and Kristen Johnson . We went over several ideas, things that were visually abstract.

But after studying the space we discovered that we had to scratch out our ideas. The space was smaller, and due to the fact that it was a hallways, nothing could protrude from the walls that could potentially serve as an obstacle. So we went over a lot of ideas- thinking about murals and anything with vivid colors. We weren't sure how to depict what exactly we wanted.

I'm not positive but one of the two fellow artist of mine mentioned 'graffiti' and I brought up the concept of Chinese calligraphy and how it was an art in itself since it was an old tradition. This lead to a conversation about how graffiti was also an tradition and that a lot of graffiti usually contained some sort of back meaning.

We talked about Graffiti being popular in other countries as well.

We came to the conclusion that we wanted to take the art of Chinese calligraphy and Chinese literature and use that for the content of our 'graffiti'.
It was interesting because we all had ideas and contributed in ways that made us a perfectly compatible machine!

It was amazing, we knew we had a great idea, we perfected it- and we were selected. It was an empowering feeling since the three of use were one of the few undergraduates in the class. Having the power to direct a show was so motivational!
Anything is possible.

Born of Hope

Everyone is familiar with the "Lord of the Rings" Movie trilogy (as well as the books).
Peter Jackson had a success in filming the movie and spending £200million.

I personally love each movie and I appreciated the time spent on it.
But one fan proved that you didn't have to have a huge budget to accomplish what you want.
With only £25,000, Lord of the Rings Fan: Kate Madison (pictured on the left) made a fan made prequel that she based off of the books by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Being the writer, director and actress in her own film, I'm only wow'd by her level of passion and motivation to pull off such an astounding piece!
I'm personally moved by her attitude and just her LOVE for the trilogy and how she was so inspired by the Peter Jackson's film!

It's not only comforting for me to see that people do what they want with themselves no matter what obstacles they may come across (foul name calling, judgmental criticism, personal insults), but it's just nice to see someone do SOMETHING for themselves and for everyone else they believe would enjoy it for no other gain but satisfaction!

I think she's done a great job in trying to replicate the costumes used in the film as well as having it look professional






Click Here: for the Film

Angel-aahhh

I'm not sure what happened. I don't know why I worked so lightly with this image. I also feel like I didn't put my full effort into it.

It was an off day for me.

Initially it's unfinished.

I guess I was trying to slowly build up on tone and ended up... not. Haha Oops!

Stealth

This is a concept drawing I made of a character for a comic idea that's been stewing in the back of my head.

FIRST. DIGITAL DRAWING. EVER.

Signatures

Who doesn't enjoy dressing up and taking photos with some friends?
I actually made this little signature out of our pure motivation, I thought the picture used captured a lovely side of my friend Emily Thompson! (Check out her blog: http://italianginger.blogspot.com/)

Toyed with a few brushes, spent about 5-10 minutes really.

Fun!

Bloomerland!: Home of Carol Tyler

Much like my fellow artist: Kristen Johnson
I've been taken under the wing of comic artist and professor at University of Cincinnati's Graphic Novel class: Carol Tyler. Talk about influential! This woman is inspiring. And I don't me in the 'oh she's a good teacher and makes me feel good about my drawings.' sort of way. No. See,this woman- Is nuts. Nuts as in NUTS about comics! She loves it! She lives comics, she breathes comics, she bleeds India ink! She's 100% dedicated to her passion: comics. That's what is so inspiring. THAT is what is just so amazing about this woman. She has a beautiful soul and her artwork shows her potential.
(photo taken by: Lisa Ventre- Click on photo for Interview conducted by M.B. Riley)
Her book: Late Bloomer made it's debut in 2005.
Being her 2nd solo work it starts with an intro by Robert Crumb: who shares his opinion about her: "She's tops in my book. One of the best artists alive and working in the comics medium. Her work has the extremely rare quality of authentic HEART. Hers are the only comics that ever brought me to the verge of tears."

Her enthusiasm really influences who she teaches. She helps you tap into your undiscovered talent and and if allow her she can help you achieve things you've never even thought of.


I was lucky enough to be around the woman when she was finishing up her newest release: You'll Never Know: Book 1: A Good and Decent Man. Being taught by someone who is in her creative groove is awe-inspiring.

This is part 1 of a trilogy, Tyler is her personal search of her father's experience in World War II and the stories he has to offer as well as how it affected him and her future.
Her second edition: Book II: Collateral Damage is due out in 2010.




For more information about this woman, check out her website which is cleverly designed and stands as an accurate depiction of her personality:

naturally nude, dude.

As mentioned earlier, it's been some time since I've drawn the human body.
These are some quick gestures and sketches varying from 2-5 minutes each!
I'm a slow drawer. Tsk

Practice practice practice!

Bun-bun-bunnicus!

Bunnicus. My rabbit friend.
(I like rabbits, have you noticed?)
A frame from a mini comic that I worked on sophomore year in my graphic novel class.

He's a rabbit super hero that feeds on potatoes and because of that he has horrible eye sight.




Also, he really looks like this.
He's a little chubbo, since he's on a all starch diet.

I'm currently working on a 3d model of him. Might develop a more intricate story line for this guy later on.
Keep an eye out! He might just hop in when you're baking a potato!

Materials used: Bristol and India Ink

Angela

It's counter productive you know.
I suck at forshortening. Don't get me wrong- I understand the concept... it's just not my greatest strength.

And it's funny, because if I get bored after giving up- I'll doodle. Which is distracting and something you do WHEN you're distracted. But at least the teacher is asking me about the rabbit. And not about how badly rendered the model is.

SUCCESS!


It sort of works.

The Mountain Goat!

--Billy Goat
(I promise a better picture soon)

Talk about Influential nonsense.

Let me walk you through the process of this painting.
My professor, from the looks of it- seems to be a very steady, calm and to the books sort of guy.
The kind of guy that might force you to draw a sphere and a cone under random lights and different backgrounds just to 'practice and tone your skills'.

No no, you see he had a different approach. What he did was he figured out a way to tap into this weird pool of creativity that you have hidden in the many secret pockets within your brain. You see, he taught you to paint, from nonsense.

And I say that in the most meaningful and complimentary way.

What he had us do, was he told us, "This painting will consists of 5 layers."

The first layer was to be a painting of a 'shape' that we created for a previous project. It didn't matter how you painted that shape= just as long as you did.
After completing that grand master piece...of your shape- you were then expected to paint OVER It. Over it with what?

What's your favorite song? Whatever it is, throw that on and listen to it on a loop and paint your next layer! (on top of the current one).

It's hard you know, after investing so much time on a painting, you have to go over that precious work with something else. It's a little heart breaking. This was our second layer.

The third layer: We were asked to bring in a photo of our family or some sort of memory and to paint that on top of the existing 2 layers.

Our fourth layer: We were to record a noise- any noise and put it on a cd. And as a class we placed those cds face down on a table and randomly selected one. Whatever noise you got- you listened to it and you try to take whatever you feel and put it on the canvas. Have you ever tried rendering an indescribable emotion onto a 2d surface? I have.

The fifth layer was my favorite, it tickled me. We had to paint an image or some image clip that our teacher had hand selected for us (from a magazine- the internet, a book- anywhere). His deciding factor? He choose images that reminded him- of us. It tickled me when he handed me this magazine clipping of an orange balloon shaped into a mountain goat. I wasn't sure what to do with it, other than draw my interpretation of this silly goat onto my painting.

Needless to say, I really liked the outcome and it stood true to me- a representation of my adventure from starting with a blank canvas to this awkward looking goat on different layers of paintings- each holding their own meaning.

Makes no sense.